HMS Warrior Takes Up Her Station By John Wells the commands given the whole evolution had been carried out in complete silence . As Her Majesty ' s Ship Warrior forged ahead to a westerly breeze the Captain remarked: " I made it four minutes thirty seconds . You have some good men there, Commander, but the main topsail was let fall before the yardarm gaskets were clear. We shall repeat the evolution in the dog watches! "
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HMS Warrior in 1860, from a color lithograph by T.G . Dutton. Illustrations courtesy Warrior Preservation Trust .
Apart from the quartermaster and four helmsmen at the steering wheels, between the main and mizzen , there was not a man in sight the whole length of the 400-foot upper deck. Halyards , sheets , braces and the rest of the running gear were secured to bitts or cleats , their ends neatly flaked down around the foot of each mast. Both funnels had been lowered by the stokers until their yellow tops were only just visible above the hammock nettings that extended fore and aft above the bulwarks on each side. When the propeller had been hoisted clear of the water into the circular well by the stern, the iron sheerlegs were unshipped and stowed away , along with the heavy threefold purchase . On the after bridge , extending athwartships some ten feet above the upper deck , the Captain stood expectantly , flanked by the Commander and the Officer of the Watch . At the port wing an alert Yeoman-of-Signals had his telescope trained on a hoist of six flags at the flagship ' s mainmast. Before the last of the answering pendants was close up , signifying that all ships of the Channel Squadron had read and understood the signal , the Yeoman could be heard to mutter impatiently . Making little headway , the five ironclads were in lineahead formation about two cables apart. It was 9 o'clock on a Monday forenoon and " evolutions" were imminent. The date was mid-November 1862. As soon as the signal was dipped-to be rehoisted immediately--orders came in quick succession . " Clear lower deck-all hands make plain sail " brought some 500 men from below to take up their allotted positions on deck . At the second dip came " Upper yardmen to the tops. " Captains of tops, selected midshipmen and upper yardmen raced up both sides of all three lowermasts leaving hands on deck to man sheets and halyards. " Sail loosers- stand by " was purely precautionary to allow upper yardmen their regulation two-minute halfway breather following the Admiralty's alarm at the incidence of heart disease amongst the corps d'e lite of seamen eager to outstrip their rivals in other ships. "Away aloft masthead. " In fluid movement topgallant and royal yardmen raced up to their stations while the sail loosers took up positions on the topsail and lower yards. '' Trice up '' "Lay out"-"Hoist the jib" came next, each sail looser casting off his gasket to hold up the sail with both hands. " Let fall-sheet home the topsails. " Letting the topsails fall , the loosers regained the crosstrees as hands on deck hauled away the sheets onto blocks on the yards below . Then ' 'Topsail halyards-hoist the topsails " and all three topsail yards were hoisted simultaneously . Similar action followed with orders for the topgallants and royals. Then the flying jib was hoisted and finally "Let run the gear of the courses ." Down came the heavy fore and main canvas to be sheeted home by every man on deck. Apart from 22
After the Napoleonic Wars and at a time when British defense expenditure was substantially cut back , France set about rebuilding its navy to mount a challenge that took advantage of improvements in propulsion and weaponry. The resultant arms race accelerated after the Crimean War, which had exposed the vu lnerability of wooden hulls to red-hot shot and shell , whilst highlighting the value of self-propelled floating batteries in subduing land-based fortifications. In 1858 France laid down the first oceangoing ironclad , Gloire, a wooden frigate of 5630 tons with a 4 1/2-inch armored belt, thirty-six 6 1/2-inch guns and a speed of 12 1/2 knots under steam . Hitherto it had not been in Britain's interest to take the lead in new technology but a palpable threat had to be surpassed and the answer was Warrior . " The black snake among the rabbits, " Warrior was a prodigious step forward in warship design , the culmination of developments in iron hulls , armor and screw machinery. Paradoxically , she initiated such a flood of innovations in naval architecture that she herself was soon obsolescent. Because naval yards of the day were unable to construct iron ships , Warrior was built by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Blackwall, being laid down in May 1859 and launched at the end of 1860. Fitted out at the adjacent Victoria Docks with engines and rigged by Chatham dockyard, the ship was commissioned on 1 August 1861 . Two months later she steamed into Spithead off Portsmouth for speed trials , where her powerful two-cylinder Penn trunk engines drove her at 14.35 knots , a record that stood for eight years. In those days coal was relatively expensive and Warrior's bunkers could carry only 850 tons , which limited the ship's steaming radius at medium speed to a bare 1000 miles . Except for station-keeping in close company and entering or leaving harbor, sails were essential for a warship with worldwide responsibilities: so Warrior was square-rigged on three masts, and proved a good heavy weather sai ler when she first crossed the Bay of Biscay. And because the propeller and funnels might interfere with movement under sai l, Warrior' s screw was hoisted up inside a well in the stern and her telescopic funnels lowered to upper-deck level. Protected in a box-like citadel with an armored belt of 4 1/2inch iron and 18-inch teak, Warrior' s armament was intimidating . Originally planned to mount a broadside of 40 68pdr (8-inch) smoothbore muzzle-loaders, Warrior' s guns later included the new rifled bore breech-loader designed by Sir William Armstrong. These had greater acc uracy and longer range than the 68pdrs , but they were less reliable. Two l IOpdr (7inch) and four 40pdr (4 .7-inch) Armstrongs were mounted on the upper deck , while eight l IOpdrs were exchanged for 68 pdrs on the main deck . All guns could fire solid shot for armor penetration, or fused shells. Built of wrought iron and displacing over 9000 tons Warrior was incredibly strong for her 400-foot length and had watertight bulkheads and underwater compartments only possible in a metal hull. Structural strength , the noncorrosive qualities of wrought iron , and the care bestowed by the Royal Navy all contributed to her being able to remain afloat for more than 120 years. Warrior represented the courageous belief of ht> r SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987